What We’re Reading

Preeti Aroon

• The blog innercitypress.com, by Matthew Lee. If you’re interested in minutiae about the United Nations, this blog is where it’s at. A New York Times article today quotes Lee describing the U.N.’s day-to-day work as passing “boring resolutions and delivering food. Nobody cares.” For whom, then, is Lee blogging?

Henry Bowles

• Miami Vise, by Max J. Castro in The Nation. Despite burgeoning numbers of moderate second- and third-generation Cuban-Americans, South Florida’s anti-Castro históricos are more powerful than ever.

Michael Cognato

• Douglas Hofstadter, Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid. Hofstadter’s new book, I Am a Strange Loop, has been getting attention lately, but this earlier masterpiece is worth rereading. His insights about patterns and recursive structures in math, art, and music come together to present a challenging idea of just what the human soul is.

Blake Hounshell

• On the Other Hand . . . . Rodrik versus Mankiw (Others Also Weigh In), by Mark Thoma of the Economist’s View blog. Top economists Dani Rodrik, Greg Mankiw, and others square off on the pros and cons of trade. 

Prerna Mankad

• We need to bring climate idealism down to earth, by Lawrence Summers in the Financial Times. Not only can states ignore the cap-and-trade carbon emissions system altogether without real penalties, Summers complains, but negligible prices for credits fail to provide any incentive for polluters to curb their bad habits. He also argues that the Kyoto framework won’t induce substantial changes in developing countries, where limits are most needed. Tune in next column for Summers’ solution.

Carolyn O’Hara

• The Kingdom in the Closet, by Nadya Labi. The Atlantic, May 2007. What it means to be gay in Saudi Arabia.

Kate Palmer

• Life on the Line: The Arizona-Mexico Border, by Philip Caputo, Virginia Quarterly Review, Spring 2007. The Pulitzer Prize-winner leads you on a tour of the desperation, anger, and history of this increasingly politicized border. If you’re interested in this topic, don’t miss FP’s dissection of the border here.